I have had my Mini P180 for some months now and I really like it. The big 20cm fan isn't that loud and moves lots of air. Plus: it's very easy to hide cables, and everything about it has a positive feel.

I've got a faulty high-performance retail PC (read: Dhell XPS) that I'm now going to scrap and salvage for parts instead. I've been thinking back and forth what to get as a replacement, and it seems this case + the new ASUS Rampage II Gene is the best option for me right now.

I'm not too keen on the 200mm top fan and the general negative air pressure design of the case; the fan seems gimmicky to me and with more "suck" than "blow" (no, I'm not talking about THAT, you perv! ) the entire case will act as an air filter, but other cases have their own drawbacks, and all things considered this case does more things right than it does them wrong. A lot more right actually from what I've read on the internet, so on the whole I'll do well I think.

The ASUS mobo has everything a crazy gamer really needs; triple-channel memory, dual PEG slots, some overclocking action is possible too. For those who doubted the purpose of this case, well, it seems it has been found at last! Only took a year...

It looks like a nightmare for getting a large heatsink'd mobo in- I wonder why Antec didn't ditch the steel division plate between the two chambers?

Hi I am new but thought I would make a comment re: CPU Coolers
I have built a moderately powerful and 'reasonably' quiet multipurpose computer using this case. I went for the very large Prolima Megahalems
as reviewed by SPCR http://www.silentpcreview.com/article916-page1.htmlI chose this Cooler because it is extremely easy attach to the MB after the motherboard has been installed in the case.
Sorry about the quality but it is night here in Oz so had to use the flash.
Asus P5E-VM
Q6600 @ 3.0 MHZ
8 meg ram
Vista 64x
NV 9800GTX+
NB all except the video card, as too large, was previously installed in a Silverstone SG01 case.

I just put together a i7-920 based system with the P180 Mini. I was quite impressed with the overall quality of the case but it's been years since I bought a case so I don't know what standard these days

My biggest issue right now is that I want the fan speed to be temperature dependent. My mobo has several system fan outputs but the case fans have large standard connectors, not the usual 3 pin fan connectors. As a result of this it seems that when I put the system to sleep the fans keep running. Not what I want. Maybe it's a mobo/OS problem.

Has anyone dealt with this already?

Edit: I forgot to add a tip for owners of this case. The filter for the air intake in the bottom of the case can be removed and snapped in on the outside. It's meant to be possible to go in on both sides I'm pretty sure. Makes removal and cleaning a lot simpler. Anyway, you probably saw this already but I was glad to see it

I don't know anything about automatic fan controllers, but I have a question about the rear vent holes. Right now, I have some tissue blocking the holes so that intake only comes in through the air filters. Does anyone have any input about doing this? I want to reduce dust build up without compromising temperature. Not sure if there is a cheap way to test flow rates from home.

I am loving the case so far though. I've had it for a few months and it's much quieter than the generic case I had before. My favorite fan setting is having the rear fan on low and the top fan on medium when I'm gaming. The rear fan sounds the loudest to me on medium and high settings while the top fan doesn't bother me until it is on high. Temps are fine right now.

I have since connected my two fans to the sysfan1 header on my MSI X58M motherboard. This gives me software controlled fan speeds. It's not ideal yet so I may still switch to a hardware controller but at least it's better than the fixed speeds the case apparently wants us to use. Rather silly really when what you really need is temperature dependent fan speeds. Also a bit strange that the fans in this case don't have rpm sensors. Time to replace at least the 120mm one with a fan that does have the sensor.

I see no harm in blocking those vents. Strange that they are there at all when other vents are all filtered.

Given the close proximity of the 200mm and 120mm exhaust fans to the CPU, would it be necessary to run a fan on a CPU heatsink?

All depends on your setup. I have an Athlon II 245 with a mini-ninja and then a sapphire HD4670 video card. No fan on the minja or GPU. I've removed the top fan and blocked the hole and run an Arctic Cooling PWM fan on the rear. It rarely spins up and everything stays very cool. Of course this is a very low-powered system. But with a larger heatsink and the top fan too, yes, many CPUs could probably be cooled without a fan on them.

Luckily Antec and others make lots of cases for different needs. I wouldn't want to trade my mini 180 for the solo because:

- the solo doesn't have an eSATA port in the front
- the solo has exposed power and reset buttons
- appears to be less geared towards vibration dampening

The main problem IMO with the mini 180 is that the fans can't be powered by the motherboard without requiring an adapter. Sure the fans can run at 3 speeds but that's 60's technology. I want the fans to spin as slowly as possible while still providing adequate cooling. So now both fans are powered by the mobo and controlled by a (somewhat braindead) MSI app that doesn't remember the setting it's supposed to enforce after a wakeup from sleep or a reboot. I'll be putting in a proper thermostatically driven controller soon.

It's a really great case. I'm going to buy it. But some questions still remain.

1. What is the exact distance between the front panel with 5.25'' slots and the front door? Some people might like to install rheobuses, amplifiers or anything similar. This has been already asked but nobody answered.

2. It is stated in several places that's impossible to install 120mm intake fans without sacrificing hard drive cages. And even that it's unneeded. I disagree because HDD temperature 38-39 degrees Celsius with 21-22 ambient is unaffordable. Is there any means to fix this? There are some slim fan models on the market, for instance Scythe Slip Stream Slim series. They are only 12mm thick. What is the distance between the cages and the chassis? Can it be somehow increased? I saw in the model description that 80mm or 92mm also can be mounted there. Maybe they won't interfere with cages. Any more ideas?

3. There was a complaint that fans powered from 4-pin Molexes won't stop when computer sleeps. Is that true? Probably there will be needed some adapters to fix the problem by powering fans from the motherboard.

In most I like this case. But that's very disappointing when we have to pay about $150 for the item and tune it with file and hammer... All the main cons are known more than two years. We all wound be happy if Antec made another revision of Performance One series without those flaws.

Hi Jordan.
Thank you for this interesting material. Maybe it's a speculation from me, but maybe not. I don't tend to believe every paper preferring to collect information and follow prudent approach. Better cooling is not a panacea but is desireable for all components, especially for mechanical devices. I would like to have my HDDs not hotter than 40 degrees most of the time. In my room ambient temperature is often higher than 21-22. It sometimes (rarely) reaches 27. So 40 will be exceeded. 40-45 degrees zone is less preferable even in Google's research. Likely I will put up with 1-2 HDDs. But if someone wanted all 5 then temperatures would be even higher. And without possibility to install those intake fans I don't see reasonable workarounds. Workaround is probably buying P183 but it is also not perfect (big, heavy, expensive, problems with the top fan etc.).

I think I'll buy Mini P180 and assemble my new system. Then I will experiment with better cooling or maybe not.

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